Matt Neal's lead in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship is down to him "riding his luck" and he will slip up, according to closest points rival Colin Turkington ahead of their duel at East Midlands race circuit Donington Park this coming Sunday (30 July).
Reigning champion Neal's season got off to a bad start with a big crash in his Team Halfords Honda at Brands Hatch, but since then he's got away with several incidents on his way to building up a comfortable 37 point lead over Team RAC MG driver Turkington as the season prepares to enter its second half.
Northern Irishman Turkington, who at 24 could this year become the youngest ever BTCC champion, said: "In the latest round at Croft, Matt got involved in a big impact with my team-mate Robert Collard - he was off the track for a moment and it could have ended in disaster.
"I was also following him on another part of the track and he hit the tyre marker on the inside of the corner - often that can wreck your suspension, but he got away with just a damaged front wing.
"I'm not whinging, because overall he's driven very well and gone out and won races. But he has been riding his luck a bit and if he keeps getting involved in those sorts of dramas it will go wrong for him. I just need to make sure that when it does I'm in a position to capitalise."
At Donington, Turkington will be hoping to achieve his first pole position of 2006 - last year he was untouchable in qualifying, with three poles including one at Donington, but this season he's yet to start a race from the front. In fact, at Croft 11 days ago, he suffered his worst qualifying performance of the season so far with only the seventh fastest time.
And he added: "The heat at Croft seemed to affect our car a little bit more than we'd expected for some reason - we were only a couple of tenths off pole but it's so competitive that I was back on the fourth row and from there it's never easy.
"The forecast is for similar weather at Donington so we need to be on top of things quicker so we don't put ourselves in a similar situation. The position I'm in, fighting for the championship, I need to maximise everything."
To win the BTCC would be a lifetime dream come true for Turkington. He had a chance to become Neal's team-mate in 2006 after testing the Team Halfords Honda, but opted to rejoin Dick Bennetts' WSR organisation that runs the Team RAC MG programme. And one senses that he would get greater satisfaction lifting the Champion's trophy for WSR, having raced its cars since making his BTCC debut back in 2002.
He said: "If I don't win then coming second, third or fourth would be a big disappointment as my whole life has been dedicated to winning the BTCC. And that goes for all the guys at the workshop.
"Each race meeting, when you go out in the car, things just get that little bit more intense. There's no messing about when you go out onto the track. There's so much at stake and being in a good position in the championship makes you a lot hungrier and determined.
"I really need a win at Donington and start regularly finishing in front of Matt every time. He can put the pressure on, but I'm not going to lie down easily. I'm going to put up a fight. I'm pretty psyched up right now."
